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Visa and MasterCard cut a good deal in settling a long-running class-action suit with retail merchants this month, agreeing to pay a combined $7.25 billion that they already had set aside, without having to change significantly how they run their lucrative charge-card networks.

Barron's has featured both Visa (ticker: V) and MasterCard (MA) mostly in a favorable light in recent years, including an upbeat article on Visa a year after its initial public offering ("The Pleasure of Plastic," March 30, 2009).

Both stocks have risen around 40% in the past 12 months. These gains are largely justified, although the shares now seem fully valued. The two are a virtual duopoly, with years of steady long-term revenue growth ahead, as cash and checks—which still account for 80% or so of retail transactions—steadily give way to plastic and electronic payments. And the pair shoulder no credit risk; they merely process transactions.

Aside from valuation, it's hard to make a strong case against Visa and MasterCard. (UBS analyst John Williams has gamely tried to do so, downgrading both to Sell, while arguing that they're more exposed to weaker economic conditions than the bulls acknowledge.) Yet for the pair, recently trading at $124.11 and $422.38, to reward shareholders much further, they must become more generous in directly sharing their cash.

Both pay meager dividends. Visa's 88 cents a year amounts to a 0.7% yield and represents less than 15% of forecast 2012 earnings of $6.09. MasterCard's $1.20 payout makes for a 0.2% yield and only 5% of this year's expected profit.

One reason for the plastic titans' stinginess has been uncertainty caused by the class-action suit. With that gone, Keefe Bruyette & Woods analyst Sanjay Sakhrani writes, Visa and MasterCard are "in a very strong position to return capital" to shareholders.

The stock (ticker: F) is also off 23% since Barron's published a bullish view on the car maker. ("Ford Looks Ready to Roll," Aug. 1, 2011). We said it was slashing debt, boosting sales, and readying new models for China and India.

That's mostly come to pass, but last month, the big manufacturer said that in the second quarter its international operations' pretax loss could be triple the previous quarter's $190 million deficit. A big culprit: Europe, where overcapacity is hurting mass-market auto makers.

Ford, which reports second-quarter results Wednesday, still expects to be "solidly profitable" in 2012, with positive cash flow. In the revived U.S. market, it's had a healthy 7% sales gain this year.

Even if the U.S. slips back into recession, says Joe Terril, who runs St. Louis money manager Terril & Co., Ford should do OK. "This isn't the old Ford that loses billions in a recession. It can cut costs in a hurry," via layoffs, production cuts, or shifting work from one area to another.

Besides "excellent management," Ford's automotive division has about $9 billion in net cash, he adds, and the company's new investment-grade credit rating will help curb interest expenses. Ford's auto debt was $13.7 billion on March 31, versus $16.6 billion a year earlier.

Subtract the $2.60 a share in net cash from the stock, and it trades at just five times the 2012 consensus estimate of $1.31 per share. "It's cheap" and it pays a more-than-2% dividend, says Terril, who has been adding to his Ford stake. "In three years, it could double."